PARIS — France’s powerful trade unions and left-wing political forces are planning to stand up to President Emmanuel Macron as he seeks to overhaul labor rules — just not yet.

A trade union leader and staffers at the hard-line CGT union told POLITICO they were keeping their powder dry while Macron and his team hold closed-door talks throughout the summer. But the CGT and its allies, supported by Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s far-left France Unbowed movement in parliament, are preparing for a show of strength in September that will provide a big domestic test for a president who has so far impressed on the world stage.

The looming showdown over reforms, which are likely to include revisions to France’s ironclad long-term work contract, will show if Macron is able to deliver or cave in when faced with union opposition.

“We’re calling for major mobilization in September,” Fabrice Angei, a top CGT official, said. “We’re setting out in June to argue, explain and convince people to join us, and this work will continue through the summer … so that starting in September we can see the biggest possible turnout for rallies.”

As part of their arsenal, opponents plan street protests, diatribes in parliament, social media activity and an awareness-raising campaign during the Tour de France, union members and Mélenchon aides said.

Unions’ moment of truth

The reform’s central plank, which would give much more prominence to company-level labor talks and downgrade the importance of negotiations at a broader level, is bound to undermine their leverage.

Macron’s plans are hardly a secret. They were a major feature of his election campaign, and leaks on the state of secret talks between unions and the government garnered widespread coverage — so much so that the labor ministry launched legal action to crack down on leakers.

Jean-Luc Mélenchon (L) meets a CGT unionist as he takes part in a protest against Labour law deregulation on June 27, 2017 at the Invalides esplanade in Paris

Yet the CGT’s position, and that of other unions, is measured. Philippe Martinez, the CGT’s extravagantly mustachioed boss, is calling on all workers to join a national protest movement on September 12. But he is steering clear of conventional union talk about a “power struggle” between the government and the people.

That’s partly because Macron’s government is showing skill at splitting hard-line and reformist unions, and making them keep quiet about talks.

Jean-Claude Mailly, head of the FO union, earlier this week hailed the labor negotiations as a “true consultation” and said his group had no plans to join the September 12 protest.

“For the time being we’re not taking part in that because we’re still talking,” he told Franceinfo. “If there is a problem, we’ll see at the right time.”

Ditto for Laurent Bergé, head of the moderate CFDT union, who said his group would not participate in September’s action. While the CFDT was not “blindly confident” in the government, it would wait to air any disagreements until September, when the content of Macron’s plans becomes known.

CGT on thin ice

Which leaves the CGT, its ally Sud, Mélenchon’s France Unbowed movement and a few other forces isolated in their efforts to fight Macron.

According to another union boss taking part in national talks, the CGT faces a dilemma: lose face with its base by not putting up a fight, or risk further embarrassment if the movement falls flat.

The union already spent considerable capital mobilizing its troops against a labor reform conducted by former President François Hollande, only to see the law forced through parliament despite weeks of protest.

We will rally all the populations of our neighborhoods, where people don’t have work, the jobless, the students. We will tell them: you have to join this movement. We must resist — Jean-Luc Mélenchon

What’s more, the CGT is losing ground against the rival CFDT, which in March become the biggest labor group in the private sector in terms of firms represented, having already surpassed the CGT in terms of membership numbers. (The CGT remains No. 1 in the public sector and among small firms.)

So Martinez and his allies know they must get their timing right. With students finishing university in July and August a nonstarter for protests, that window of opportunity is in September — after Macron’s plans have been revealed and before they can be signed into law.

“It’s a tactical position,” said the union chief, who asked to remain anonymous. “They know that if they start in July, it will deflate.”

Mélenchon to the rescue

With the CGT and its allies treading carefully, all eyes are on Mélenchon to be the anti-reform movement’s figurehead.

The veteran leftist, who won more than 19 percent of the vote in the first round of a presidential election and whose party picked up 17 seats in the National Assembly in early June, joined a small rally near parliament Tuesday at which a few hundred protesters waved signs saying “Stop Toutanmacron” and “The Medef [employers’ lobby] will not make the law.”

The next morning, Mélenchon was on the radio promising that opposition to Macron would be based in the streets.

“We, France Unbowed, will play our role,” he told Europe 1 radio. “We will rally all the populations of our neighborhoods, where people don’t have work, the jobless, the students. We will tell them: you have to join this movement. We must resist.”

Tuesday’s gathering was a warm-up for efforts to stoke and maintain public ire through the normally subdued summer months. When September rolls around, rallies will aim to unify groups that opposed Macron during the election, but are currently divided after his landslide in the legislative election.

Whether Marine Le Pen’s National Front, another major Macron opponent, will join in remains an unanswered question.

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its good that the french didn t vote for LePen, she is a real danger after all, but now they have to defend against this bankers assault on labor rights 🙁 i hope they stay strong and stop this slimy servant of the wealthy from implementing his “labor reforms”
oh and.. “keep your powder dry”????? for what?? there is no limited amounts of protests you can do! protest energy is not gonna run out xD show him that he won t get away with his radical attacks on labor, don t keep the powder dry, shoot! (metaphorically.. no violence plz)

Posted on 6/29/17 | 11:39 PM CEST

wow

The EU is in terminal decline for 25 years now, even with ading new countries, the global GDP has STILL declined to now near 10% (from 24% of global GDP in 1970’s when UK joined, when EEC was a good deal). Full on free trade between nation states is increasing with China at the helm. UK already had Tony Blair. USA already had Obama. Now, after the tide has turned France look to the past and elect a Blair/Obama? It’s too late I’m afraid. A *protectionist* former Rothchild Banker Blair/Obama at that. Weird combination.

Won’t work.

See you in 10 years France, when you catch up with the rest of the world.

Posted on 6/30/17 | 10:52 AM CEST

SierraB

Is Jean Luc Melenchon turning into a French Victor Meldrew? All he seems to do is whinge these days, sometimes just plain contradicting himself and his positions.

He claims to hate globalisation and yet quite happily used the improvements that it has brought us in his campaign. He claimed to use holograms which weren’t but were in fact a variation on Pepper’s Ghost invented by an Englishman a century or so ago, not something that the more famous and French Lumière brothers invented.

Did he spread his on-line message via the wonderful and at the time ahead of tits time Minitel? No he used the internet, an offshoot of the American defence department. Did he use French developers to build his web site? No he used off the shelf American software, WordPress.

Is he in favour of the Democratic process? Yes when he stood as a Presidential candidate and no when the Parliamentary vote results came in.

Is he a supporter of Parliamentary supremacy? Yes when Macron calls a Congress at Versailles and No when he (JLM) is organising street protests against that very Parliament.